Faith In The Soul's Love
by Phoenix Night
Summary: HotoXMia The Universe of The Four Gods and the Shinzahos have been destroyed. With Tamahome still gone the seishi are forced to journey to a new world in order to find a way to summon Suzaku.
1. A New Journey is about to begin

Disclaimer:  I do not own Fushigi Yuugi. It belongs to Studio Pierot, Flower Comics, Viz Communications, Pioneer Studios and of course the great Yu Watase.  Howver I do own Garret, Satura, Keldar and the as yet unnamed villain.

An: Yes I'm back with another one of my infamous Hotohori/Miaka pairings. Only this one is multi-chapter.  It involves my characters from my story Dawn of a New Beginning, which despite the fact I haven't updated it in a year and a half I have not abandoned. ^^;;;   However I posted the first few chapters to DNB on a mailing list I belong to and asked people's opinion of it and one person remarked that they liked it but they wished it had been a Hotohori X Miaka story. The idea intrigued me but I stuffed it to the back of my mind and its only just come back to me reacently. I've wanted to write a longer Hotohori/Miaka fic for a while anyways. So I came up with this idea, why not write an H X M fic using my charaters from Dawn of a New Beginning but instead of following the same plot as that story, why not come up with a different one? So here you have it folks.  The story will still take place in Delika and for the most part the characters backgrounds are pretty much the same except for a few minor changes.  Oh and this story takes place after ep 21 only Tama never comes back to kill her and Amiboshi attacks earlier so the Chiriko in this story is the actual real Chiriko. Sorry to blab for so long but here's the story Enjoy!

 Miaka awoke, her head slightly pounding and feeling dazed and confused.  _Ugh what happened last night?  I went to Kutou to get Tamahome…_ Her eyes widened as everything came rushing back to her_. After I came back I tried to…_ She shuddered at the thought that she had nearly ended her own life. _And then Hotohori saved me and then he told me he loved me and kissed me_. Miaka blushed a little at that last thought. A small moan broke into her thoughts. She glanced to her side and was met with a sleeping emperor.  Hotohori was sprawled half on the bed half in the chair he was sitting in.  He was sleeping deeply and peacefully.  Miaka couldn't help smiling at the sweet picture Hotohori made. He shifted a little drawing his hand closer to his heart; a hand Miaka now noticed was holding one of hers. _He stayed with me and held my hand all night?_  Her head tilted to the side, a loving smile on her face. _I just might be able to fall in love with him._  Hotohori shifted a little and opened his eyes, his face lighting into a brilliant smile when he saw Miaka.  He sat up and stretched, wincing a little at the pain in his back from sleeping in the awkward position. "Ow!" he said as he unkinked his muscles. 

Miaka giggled at him. Hotohori turned and smiled at her. "Good morning, Miaka, did you sleep well?  Miaka nodded. "I did, what about you? That posistion didn't look very comfortable." Hotohori smiled a little ruefully. "I slept fine, although I am a bit sore."  "We should probably get up the other will be wondering-" The door to Miaka's room suddenly burst open. "Hotohori-sama! Miaka-chan something's gone wrong!"  Chichiri stood in the doorway looking slightly disheveled. "Chichiri what's wrong?"  Miaka asked.  "The Universe of the Four Gods has been burned!" the monk said.   The miko and emperor looked at each for a moment then back to the monk with horrified eyes.  _What are we going to do now?_ Miaka thought.

*****

"Kutou has burned Konan's Universe of the Four God." Chichiri explained. All seven seishi plus Miaka were in Hotohori's private chamber gathered around a table, Miaka and the Emperor had taken the time to throw on some clothes before they rushed to join the others.    "Then how are we supposed to summon Suzaku?" Chiriko said. He was the newest Suzaku seishi. He had only been with them a week. The old Chiriko had actually been a Seriyuu seishi in disguise. They were all out in the gardens one afternoon when Chiriko's flute playing had suddenly turned nasty. He revealed himself as Amiboshi, one of the Seriyuu seven.  He was using the sound waves made by his flute to try and injure them, when the real Chiriko had shown up and disrupted his spell with a leaf whistle. Tasuki and Nuriko had chased Amiboshi out into the city when and onto a bridge, they had him cornered on the ledge of the bridge when the stone gave out and he plunged into the river. They hadn't seen any sign of him since. 

"I don't know Chiriko. We needed all seven seishi plus the scroll to summon Suzaku. Even if we did manage to get Tamahome back, we would still be unable to summon Suzaku." Chichiri explained. Miaka flinched and her eyes filled with tears at the mention of Tamhome's name.  Nuriko, noticing this moved his chair closer to her then pulled the distressed Miko into his arms, Miaka buried her face in her friend's chest a she sobbed silently.  The others all stared at her a moment with worried expressions then turned back to the problem at hand. "Is there anyone we can ask for help or information?" Mitsuakake asked. Chichiri frowned a thoughtful look on his face. "I don't know, there might-"  "Taiitsukunn. She may know something." Miaka interrupted lifting her head from Nuriko's chest and staring at her seishi. 

The seishi looked blinked at their miko then looked at each, surprisingly Miaka's suggestion was a good.  "Good idea, Miaka-chan! That's a good idea na no da."  Chichiri said as he and the others smiled at the girl.  Miaka perked up a little at that, her face losing some of the emotional stress she was under.  "Then lets go see Taiitsukunn!" Miaka said, smiling brightly.  "I'm already here." An old voiced rasped.  "AHHHHHHHHH!!!"  All seven people jumped out of their chairs and hit the floor at the appearance of the ugly old lady, although Miaka ended up in Nuriko's lap since he still had a grip on her when the Creator had appeared.  "Taittsukunn!" Miaka exclaimed.  "Wha-What is that thing?" Tasuki exclaimed looking horrified.  "Its Taittsukunn na no da!"  Chichiri explained. The seishi sat up and looked at the old woman.

"Taiistsukunn, is there anyway to summon Suzaku now that the scroll has been burned?" Miaka asked. "There is, but it involves a long and dangerous journey. You must go to Hokkan, the land of the north first and recover the Shinzaho. Do you wish to accept this Miaka?"  Taitsukunn looked at the girl.  Miaka nodded a determined look in her face.  "Then I will-" The old woman stopped talking as a wave of immense power hit their senses.  The Creator's eyes widened.  "It can't be!  There must be some mistake."  She turned to the Suzaku seishi.  "We must go to my palace at once."    She held out her hands over the group and in the next instant they found themselves in her palace in the room with the huge mirror.  "What's going on?"  Nuriko asked. 

Taitsukunn ignored him for a few moments as she looked at the blank mirror. Nothing appeared on it but apparently she got whatever information she wanted.  She turned back to the seishi. "It is as I feared, the shinzaho has been destroyed, not only the one in Hokkan but the one in Sailo as well."  "There were two of them?" Hotohori asked.  "Yes and both were needed to summon Suzaku. The Shinzahos were holy relics that were created when Genbu and Byakko were summoned. The god's powers were infused into items that the mikos had with them at the time of the summoning ceremony.  After the mikos left some of their seishi chose to guard the relics against any evil minded person who wanted them. They could hand over the relics only to a true miko." Taitsukunn explained.

"So that means I can't summon Suzaku?"  Miaka asked, then gasped as a sudden thought occurred to her. "If I can't summon Suzaku, then Yui-chan can't summon Seriyuu right?  They needed all seven seishi to summon him and they lost Amiboshi. So they needed the Shinzahos as well didn't they?" Taitsukunn nodded.  "They would, if they lost all seven seishi but Amiboshi is alive and in Sailo. All they need is to look for him, but they're not the ones I'm worried about." The Creator said. "Who destroyed the Shinzahos?" Chiriko asked.  "I don't know, all I know about him is that his name is Tenkou. Tenkou was a god worshipped by Nakago's tribe, but they turned from him many years ago." The old lady closed her eyes a moment then looked hard at the seishi.

"There is another way for you to summon Suzaku, but it would require you to make a journey three times more dangerous then the one for the Shinzaho would have been. You must journey to another world."  She paused at the collective gasp. "My home world?" Miaka asked. "No one completely different. This world is called Delika. Many centuries ago, Delika was having trouble with its magic, so they asked the four gods' and me for help. We helped them, but only if the gods of that realm agreed to guard the most powerful of the Gods' relics.  The Hearts of The Four Gods.  The Hearts are pieces of a stone that carries the essence of one of the four gods in it. Delika was asked to care for the Hearts because if anything happened to this realm the hearts could be retrieved and any damage to this realm could be repaired. The Hearts can also be used as a last result for summoning a deity." The seishi's mouths had fallen open in shock at this revelation.

"Now you must make a choice you can either stay here or go to Delika to retrieve Suzaku's heart. If you decide to go all of you must go, including Hotohori. Don't worry Konan will be looked after while you're gone." Taiitsukunn said noticing emperor leaning forward about to say something. "So Miaka do you accept this quest?"  Miaka looked around at her seishi, who all nodded.  "I do, I'll find the heart."  She said.  "Very well. I will contact Minerra the Queen of the Delikan gods and ask her to arrange a guide for all of you. You'll be leaving sometime tomorrow, so I suggest you rest, I'll have the Nyan-Nyans make up some rooms for all of you." With that Taiitsukunn left them alone, leaving them to wonder just what they had gotten themselves into.

*****

Night had fallen over the mountain palace; the stars were bright twinkling jewels against the blue-black of the night sky. Miaka sat by herself on a rock overlooking a Koi filled pond. She had a lot on her mind tonight.  The upcoming journey was taking up a huge chunk of her thoughts but mostly she thought about Tamahome and Hotohori and how she felt about them.

"Miaka? You should be sleeping, tomorrow is going to be a hard day."  Miaka whipped her head around to see Hotohori dressed in a robe, with his hair loosely bound back in a ponytail. "Hotohori what are you doing here?"  "I went to check up on you and you weren't in your room, I grew worried and started to look for you." The seishi said coming and sitting by the miko. Miaka smiled at him. _He was worried about me? Hotohori's always been so nice to me. _The emperor smiled back and gently drew Miaka into a hug. She laid her head down on his chest and closed her eyes.  He was so warm and she was so tired.  She felt safe and protected and a little loved lying in his arms. _Maybe I should give Hotohori a chance now that Tamahome is gone._ She thought just before she fell asleep.  

Hotohori smiled gently at the sleeping miko.  He knew he should probably put her in her room and then go to his, but he wanted to hold her like this for a while longer. Only tiredness overcame him and he closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep, cradling his beloved Miaka in his arms. A lone Nyan-Nyan passes by them a while later. She looked at them for a moment, then materialized a blanket out of nowhere and covered the sleeping couple.  She walked away feeling happy with herself that her duty had been done.

Well should I continue it or dump it?  Let me know! Review or e-mail me at saturamelsi@hotmail.com


	2. First Meetings

An: Sorry about the Prologue I know it was too much info thrown in there, but I wanted to get the basic plot and information out of the way.  Don't worry the rest of the story won't be as tedious, I hope. Well anyways Satura and company come into the story now and meet the seishi. 

            The mage let her head fall down and bang into the table. Unfortunately the table was stone, so the action was slightly more painful then what she wanted. "Owww..." She moaned, lifting her head and rubbing her forehead. "Satura is there any good reason your banging your head against a solid stone table or have you finally lost your mind?" Satura lifted her head to regard Garret, her fiancé, who was looking at her with a raised eyebrow. "Yes there is." She handed him a scroll that had magically popped into her workroom a few minutes ago. Garret read the scroll, his facial expression going from curious to wary to total disbelief. "There is no way I'm doing this." He said.

Satura gave him a sardonic look.  "Well unfortunately you don't have a choice and neither do I. You and Keldar both are coming with me. If I have to look after this group you two have to suffer along with me."  Garret sighed. "Alright I'll do it."  Satura glared at the scroll for a minute before slumping down in her chair.  "What I would like to understand is even though Minerra is my ancestor, there are seventeen generations separating me from her. Why did she suddenly decide to get involved in the eighteenth?"    "Dear Heart, you know that is a completely unanswerable question. Believe me you're not the only one with divine blood in you asking that question." Her fiancé replied.

The mage sighed and admitted defeat on the matter.  Being descended from the Queen of the Gods didn't bother her; mortals with divine blood were rare but not uncommon. Therefore that fact never really bothered people who didn't know and were finding out for the first time. Besides the blood had thinned out in previous generations so much of the power that was in her bloodline was pretty much gone by the time it reached her. No, what bothered her was that Minerra had appeared to her one day three years ago to ask for a favor and she hadn't stopped since. Now thanks to the note it appeared she, Garret and Keldar, her druid friend would have to look after seven people from another world and help them look for a crystal that contained their god's powers.  "Do you have any idea where Suzaku's Heart is to begin with?"  Garret asked.  "Not a clue." Satura sighed and looked at her time candle. "Its almost noon. We need to get going if we're to meet this portal."  "Alright I'll get Keldar."  "I'll get a small bag of supplies together and meet you down in the northern field."  The man nodded. "Are Sunfire, Leira, and Kreesha coming?"  "Of course, now get going!"  "Okay, Okay!"  Garret left leaving the mage to start packing.

            Hotohori awoke the next morning feeling relaxed and happy. He kept his eyes closed basking in the feeling, but a moan and movement next to him forced him to open his eyes. He found himself looking at the top of Miaka's head.  _How did Miaka get into my room? _He then remembered the previous day's events. _We must have fallen asleep._ "Hotohori?" He glanced down to see Miaka looking at him uncertainly. "Good Morning, Miaka. Did you sleep well?"  He smiled at the miko and was glad when the uncertainly left Miaka's eyes to be replaced by a bright smile.  "I did, what about- AHHHHH!"  Miaka ended with a small scream as two Nyan-Nyans suddenly popped out of nowhere.  "Morning! Morning!  Wakey! Wakey!  Other seishi and Taitsukunn want to see you." The two little girls said smiling brightly at the pair.  The two of them nodded and the Nyan-Nyans left.  "We should get up and go see the others." Miaka said.  Hotohori nodded and reluctantly let the girl go so she could stand up.  The miko looked back down at the seishi. "I'll see you at breakfast okay, Hotohori?" she said smiling at the emperor.  Hotohori nodded, returning her smile. He watched her go, feeling a renewed spark of hope. Maybe, just maybe, he might actually have a chance at winning his heart's desire.

            "Your guides should be here within a hour, after they come through and you all meet I will then teleport you back to Delika. So you need to have all your supplies ready by then." Taitsukunn told the group over breakfast.  Hotohori and Miaka had taken the time to bath and change their clothes before rushing to meet the other seishi. Miaka had dug into the food with her usual enthusiasm. It made the seishi slightly nauseous to see her eating like that; on the other hand they couldn't deny the fact that it was nice to see her back to her old self. Although they knew she was probably still hurting.  Other than that the meal was mostly peaceful, with the main topics being where they would find the Heart, and what Delika and their guides would be like. After everyone had finished eating the Oracle dismissed them all and sent then back to their rooms to pack telling them to meet in the mirror room in half an hour.

            Satura stood with Garret and Keldar in the empty northern fields of her family's manor, waiting for the portal to come.  Sure enough after a few minutes of waiting a blue glow formed shaped into a circle about five feet wide and five feet tall. The magic in it rolled and boiled like a lake or pond. The three looked at each other, then back at the portal. It magic reached out and enveloped them and everything went blindingly white. They felt the shift as they left Delika for another world.

 The seishi and miko watched with bated breath as the portal formed and three forms fell through. The two female forms fell through and landed hard on the unforgiving marble floor. "OWWWW!!"  The red haired female groaned out. "Oh that hurt!" A woman with light brown hair said, rubbing her backside. "It was a soft and cushy landing for me." The lone male said sitting up from where he had landed amidst an alcove covered with pillows. Both Keldar and Satura turned what Garret had dubbed "The Death Glares that would kill the Reaper himself" on him.  "Easy for you to say you always land on something soft. Why do we always have the bad luck?" Satura said scowling at her fiancé.

The sound of someone pointedly clearing their throat caught the trio's attention. They turned their heads and found Taitsukunn, Miaka and the seishi staring at them.  They stared at the group for a moment before their good manners (or in Garret's case a bardic tendency to try and be overly charming) took over.   Satura and Keldar both stood (somewhat painfully since they were still a little sore) and gave a little bow. "I am Lady Satura Mel'si a tenth level warrior-mage and one of your guides." The mage said smiling at them.  "I am Keldar My'ava of the Dyra clan. I am a Druid who follows Nyasha, the Lady of The Forests." The Druid gave the miko and seishi a gentle smile.

            Garret had stepped down from the alcove and swept the group an over exaggerated bow. "I am Garret de Roncor. One of many Thieving Musicians who helps lightens my fellow countrymen's dreary days."  He said grinning at the group, eyeing them as though waiting for their reaction to something.  "THIEIVNG?!!"  The miko and seishi exclaimed looking completely horrified. The three Delikians covered their mouth trying not to laugh. However the look on the seishi's face was too much and they burst out laughing. "Jus-Just what is so funny about this?!" Tasuki yelled at them. He turned back to his fellow seishi. "I can't believe we gotta travel with a thief!"   "Um Tasuki no da?  Isn't that you are?" Chichiri asked, cutting the bandit off. 

            That stopped the red head short, as Nuriko snickered at him and  Miaka and the others all tried their best to hide the smiles on their faces.  "Well now, somebody certainly got pulled off their high horse didn't they?"  Satura had stopped laughing and was looking at the bandit with a raised brow.  "Um.. uh… well ya see…" Tasuki mumbled trying to get himself out the situation. Finally he just gave up and turned his head off to the side his nose in the air.  The mage looked at him for a moment, then focused back on the others. "All joking aside, you've nothing to fear from Garret. He won't steal anything of yours." Satura said.

"What makes you so sure we can trust him?  Maybe your just someone who's working with him." Hotohori said. "Because all Thieving bards are required to swear a magically binding oath, that if our thieving skills are used for personal gain or any type of evil, then we will die." Garret said walking forward to stand beside the two women. "Why?"  Miaka asked. "Thieving bards are supposed to only use their thieving skills for the good of the kingdom they've sworn service to. Breaking an oath is a serious offense in Delika, we take our oaths and promises very seriously." The bard explained. "So you see you can trust me, alright?"  The seishi smiled at him, assured that he was trustworthy.

"Now that's complete shouldn't we all be going back to Delika?" Keldar asked. "Yes, but first I want to know what happened to Kreesha, Sunfire and Leira." Satura asked. "Now that you mention it they're not here." The druid said looking around.  "Are you missing somebody?" Chiriko asked. "Yes, our animal guardians."  Garret replied. "Animal guardians?" Miaka asked.

"Think of them as animal versions of your seishi. When a Delikian child is born, they're taken to a local temple and there the gods grant them an animal to be their guardian. The guardian will stay with the child until their dying day. Animal guardians are as intelligent as humans and are capable of speech using their thoughts. If a guardian is killed then the person goes to a temple and either petitions the gods for a new guardian or to have their old one resurrected." The mage explained.

"What type of animals are your guardians?" Nuriko asked curiously. "Mine is a white tiger named Kreesha." Garret answered, still trying to feel Kreesha's presence. "I have a snow leopard named Leira."  Keldar said.  "Mine is a griffin named Sunfire."  Satura replied.  "Griffen? Isn't that a creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of a bird?" Miaka asked. Her sesihi stared at her in shock. "How did you know that Miaka?"  Nuriko asked. "There are myths about them in my world." The miko explained.  "Hmm, seems when the portal took us here only the three of us got transported here, our guardians are still back in Delika." Satura said.

Taitsukunn cleared her throat. "All of you have wasted too much time now, its time to send you all to Delika now. I want the seven of you to get your bags then come back here."  The miko and seishi nodded and walked out of the room only to reappear a few minutes later with all their luggage. The Oracle looked at the gathered group for a moment. "Miaka, the only advice I can give you is to be careful and to listen to your guides. Delika is a much more dangerous world and something tells me that there is someone besides the Seriyuu Seven who doesn't want you to succeed, so be careful and stick close to your seshi and guides."  She then shifted her gaze to the seishi.  "The same advice goes for you six as well, be on your guard and watch your miko. As for you three," She said looking at the trio. "Stay close to them and make sure they come back." 

Taitsukunn then held out her hands and the same portal that had teleported the Delikans appeared in front of the group. The miko and seishi gasped as the magic took hold of them, as everything went blindingly white. The last thing Miaka heard was the oracles voice. "Suzaku no Miko, good luck on your quest and may Suzaku watch over you."

            Satura came to with a small groan. A familiar beaked golden head was regarding her with worry. "Ugh, Sunfire where are we?"  _You are in your workshop. Keldar and Garret are awake but your guests have yet to awaken._ The griffin replied. The mage sat up to find her fiancé and friend looking at her. "Good, your awake. What should we do with them?"  Garret said, tilting his head at the seishi.  "Leave them, its better if they come to on their own." Satura said.  "All right. I asked Leira to get some food and drink sent up." Keldar said.  "I think we should just go into your sitting room and wait for them to wake up."  The other two nodded and stood up and walked out of Satura's workroom and into her sitting room. They left the door open so they would know when the miko and sesihi woke up.

            Miaka woke up, a massive headache hitting her. "Owwww…"She moaned sitting up. She glanced around and saw that most of her seishi were up.  "Are you alright Miaka-chan?"  Chichiri asked, looking at her worriedly. "I'm fine, I just have a really bad headache." She said. "So do the rest of us, it must be a side effect of that annoying portal." Nuriko said rubbing his temples. The other seishi were showing signs of having bad headaches. Hotohori and Mitsukake were holding one of their hands to their foreheads. Chichri and Tasuki were rubbing their temples like Nuriko except Tasuki was cursing softly under his breath. Poor Chiriko looked like he was about to start crying from the pain.

"Are all of you awake?" The group looked up to see Keldar looking at them.  "Yes, where are Satura and Garret?" Miaka asked. "In the next room, there's food and drink in there. We suspected one you woke up you would want to talk. Why don't you go join them?"  "Alright." Miaka and her seishi all got to their feet with a collective groan, their headaches stabbing through their heads like knives. Keldar raised an eyebrow at them, but she said nothing. Instead she walked into the room over to a cabinet, reached in and removed several bags and bottles. Then collected a bowl and mortar on the way out.

Meanwhile the seishi had managed to walk into Satura's sitting room and into the various chairs scattered around a dark cherry table. Keldar came back in and put the items down in front of the mage. "Here make some of your headache relief potion. From the looks of it they've all got bad reaction headaches."  The druid said.  The mage looked at the seishi. "I can see that."  She then pulled the items to her and started to make the medicine. A few minutes later, seven doses of a very nasty smelling potion were on the table. 

Satura pushed one towards Miaka. "Here, it smells nasty and tastes nasty but it works fast."  Miaka picked up the small goblet and wrinkled her nose at the smell of the potion but decided a bad taste was better to deal with then a nasty headache. She closed her eyes, and then downed the brew in one quick gulp. "Yuck!  That stuff tastes disgusting!" She cried. "But its working isn't it?"  Satura asked.  Miaka paused as a cool sensation moved through her head, like a cool ice pack had been put on her forehead. A few seconds later the feeling ended and the miko blinked as she realized her headache was gone. 

"Did it work Miaka?" Nuriko asked.  "Yeah it did." The miko replied still a little shocked at how quick the pain was gone. The seishi looked at each other for a moment, then grabbed their goblets and swallowed the brew down. What followed we various reactions to the potion. Mitsukake and Hothohori simply gave really bad grimaces at the taste. Chichiri simply said, DAAAAAA!  That tastes terrible na no da!"  Tasuki, Nuriko and Chriko all voiced their dislike of the medicine, although Tasuki also added in a stream of curses.  They all quieted down though when they felt the same cooling sensation as Miaka and just as quick switched to surprise when they found their headaches to be gone.

"How, how did that work?" Chiriko asked.  Their guides all chuckled at them. "It was a magic potion.  A lot of the potions are magical with a few exceptions. In fact, magic is used a lot in the creation of a lot thing in Delika, like weapons and jewelry." Satura explained. "The entire essence of Delika is magic, its the land's lifeblood."

The seishi nodded and then they turned their focus to why they were there. "Do you know where Suzaku's Heart is?" "Nope, none of us have any clue as to the crystal might be."  Garret said.  "WHAT?!" Miaka and the seshi exclaimed. "What kind of guides are you?!" Tasuki asked. "Aren't you supposed to help us find it?" Nuriko asked.  "Actually, no we're not." Satura said calmly taking a sip of her wine.  The seishi stared speechless at the trio. "Then why are you even our guides?" Nuriko asked bluntly.

Keldar raised an eyebrow at him. "Think about it a minute. Delika is a world of mixed races, magic, and monsters and creatures that you've never even heard of. Do you really think you could look for the Heart, amidst all that? Plus, you don't even know the geography and the layout of the land."  Nuriko blinked, seeing the Druid's point. "Then how are we supposed to find the Heart?" Hotohori asked. "Taitsukunn said she had a prophecy in her library that she was going to give us, the only problem is the Nyan-Nyans aren't being much help so she said not expect it till tomrrow." Satura said. "Besides you may not have noticed it but that crossing took a lot out of you, so I expect you'll feel sleepy and want to go to bed in another few hours."  Chriko blinked in confusion. "Why? Its only late morning, we won't want to sleep for till evening."  He said.  "Look out the window." Was the only answer he got.  The seishi looked out the window and to their surprise the sun had almost gone down, as the pinks, oranges, and reds of sunset gave way to the purple, blues and black colors of early evening. "How long were we knocked out?"  Tasuki asked.

"About 7 hours." Keldar told him. "If we were knocked out for that long then why would we want to get more-" The paused to put a hand to her mouth as she gave a huge yawn. The group chuckled at her, and Miaka had the good grace to blush and smile sheepishly. "Satura told you." Garret said. "Anyways, on to other things. Since that scroll with the prophecy is not coming why don't we tell you a little about Delika then?"  The seshi and miko perked at this, and the group resettled themselves in their chairs comfortably, ready to listen to anything their guides might have to say.

 Miaka shivered and pulled the robe tighter around her. The night air was chilly around her. She yawned and she decided that she should probably get some rest. The group had sat up for four hours listening to the three Delikans tell about their world. They had finally called a halt when her and the seishi were practically yawning with every breath. The mage had shown them to guest rooms and bid them all a good night.  Miaka was just about to crawl into the bed when she heard a knock at her door.

"Come in." She said. The door softly opened and Hotohori peered into the room. "Am I disturbing you, Miaka?" he asked. Miaka smiled and shook her head as she beckoned the emperor into her room. Hotohori closed the door behind him and came and sat in the chair next to her bed. A few moments went by as neither one said or did anything.  "Hotohori?" she finally ventured. "Is there something you wanted to talk about?" the seishi shifted a little and finally looked up at the miko, the care and concern apparent in his eyes. "I was wondering if you were all right. I mean I don't think you've had time to absorb everything that's happened with Tamahome…" Hotohori stopped and swiftly moved to the bed when he noticed the miko crying. 

He pulled the girl into his arms and hugged her. Miaka buried her face into his chest as she sobbed. For what seemed a long time all Miaka did was cry as Hotohori held her and tired to comfort her. Finally, Miaka calmed down a little enough to speak. "I'm not. Every time I think I may be able to start healing something reminds me of him and I start to hurt all over again." She said, taking in heaving breaths. "I want to move on, but I can't forget- mmph!" Miaka was cut short as Hotohori swiftly moved his head down and covered his lips with his own. 

Miaka went limp and melted against him, closing her eyes and savoring the feeling of his warmth, and the barely concealed love that he had for her.  The emperor slowly pulled back and looked at her gently cradling her face between his hands. "I know it's to soon to ask this of you, but please won't you at least give me a chance? I love you Miaka and it hurts to see you like this." He said softly. Miaka closed her eyes for a moment carefully considering her words. "I know you do, Hotohori. I do care for you, but it is still to soon." She looked him in the eyes then seeing the small glimmer of hope.  "Its not easy to get over and just forget about someone you love. I do want to give you a chance, but I'm afraid that if try too soon and to fast that I'll end up hurting you and I don't want to do that."

Hotohori smiled and brushed away a stray tear from her face with his thumb. "I understand."  He said.  Miaka reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand. "I know it seems like a lot to ask, but I will let you know when I'm ready. Until then do you think you can just be there for me when I need someone to talk to or a shoulder to cry on?"  Her seishi nodded, leaned forward and gave her another gentle kiss on her mouth, before gathering her up in his arms and leaning back against the pillow. They sat like this for long moments, not saying anything just enjoying each other's company.  Eventually, his warmth lulled the miko into a deep sleep. Hotohori looked down at her and smiled shifting himself gently so he could cradle the girl while still being comfortable himself.   He reached down and pulled the blankets over himself and Miaka. He then lay back against the pillows his cheek falling to the top of her head while his arms tightened around her. With a deeply contented sigh, he finally let sleep take him.

AN2: Sorry about the long wait.  Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Also thanks for all the comments and reviews  . I'll try to get third chapter out soon. Also I've got a question to ask, what would you all say to a lemon later in the story? For those of you who don't like that sort of story content, I'd clearly mark the chapter as a lemon. I'm not going to make it a big part of the story I'd just figured it might add something.


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